Biography of Carl Otto Lincoln

Carl Otto Lincoln, a native of Lindsborg and son of one of the founders and developers of the city and community, is a highly educated gentleman and is now manager and editor of the Lindsborg News and Record. He is one of the stockholders and officials in the Bethany Publishing Company, which publishes the News and Record and also the Posten and various college magazines and papers. The News and Record is an independent journal, and was first founded in 1881 as the Smokey Valley News. In 1887 the name was changed to Lindsborg News, published by the Bethany Publishing Company, and in 1912 was consolidated with the Lindsborg Record, which was founded in 1896.

Mr. Lincoln was born at Lindsborg August 8, 1886, a son of Andrew and Anna C. (Johnson) Lincoln. His father was born April 29, 1842, in the Province of Vermland, Sweden, a son of John and Maria (Olsdotter) Lindgren.

Andrew Lincoln came to America in 1869. About that time he took up a tract of Government land on Saline Creek six miles north of the present Town of Lindsborg. He was on the ground at the beginning, was among the first of the Swedish colonists in this section of Kansas, and though at the time of his settlement he was a single man and without money or influence his name had since become associated with much that is good and substantial in McPherson County. He soon left his homestead to seek employment in Topeka as a carpenter. While in that city he worked on the Capitol Building, then in course of construction, and was also employed by the Santa Fe Railway Company. In 1871 he returned to his homestead and remained on it five years, proving up and developing a good farm. That was a period of hardship for him and his family. They lived in a dugout, on the bare, windswept prairie, often had little to eat and went through numerous privations and hardships in order to establish a home in Kansas. In 1876 Andrew Lincoln opened the first livery barn at Lindsborg. He hauled the first material for the first house erected on the townsite. That material was transported from the nearest railroad point, which was then at Salina. Later for twenty years Andrew Lincoln was in the lumber business at Lindsborg. In 1896 he was called to Henry County, Illinois, and acted as superintendent of the Andover Orphanage there for eight years. In 1904 he retired from active business life and had since enjoyed the comforts of a well spent career in his beloved City of Lindsborg. In an official capacity he had been called upon to serve many times. He was township officer and member of the city council, and was also among the organizers of Bethany College and a member of its board of trustees until 1894. He is a charter member of Bethany Swedish Lutheran Church, and for many years was connected with that church officially. When he was comparatively poor he gave liberally of his time and means for the benefit of the town and its institutions, and had been equally liberal in later years to church and charity.

On October 21, 1871, at what is now Lindsborg, Andrew Lincoln married Miss Anna C. Johnson, daughter of John and Anna (Nelson) Nelson. Her parents were natives of Sweden and she was born in that country September 17, 1844. Andrew Lincoln and wife had nine children, six sons and three daughters. Most of them have attained something of distinction in the life of the world. Julius, the oldest, born September 21, 1872, graduated from Bethany College in 1891, was a member of its faculty of instruction two years, and in 1893 graduated from the Augustana Theological Seminary at Rock Island. He also took special work for one year in Yale University. He is a man of brilliant talents, splendid spiritual power and a noted orator. He is now pastor of the largest Swedish Lutheran Church in America, the First Church of Jamestown, New York. He had also served four terms as a member of the New York State Assembly.

David Lincoln, born March 10, 1874, was educated at Bethany and is now an undertaker and manufacturer at Jamestown, New York. He was married in 1906 to Minnie Lundquist.

Simon E., born February 16, 1876, was educated at Bethany and in 1900 graduated from Rush Medical College at Chicago and is now practicing medicine at Des Moines, Iowa. He was married in 1915. Hannah, born November 20, 1879, finished her education at Bethany. The fifth child, a son, died in infancy. Selma, born October 31, 1881, was educated at Bethany College and Augustana College, and is now city milk analyist at Jamestown, New York. Anna, born March 13, 1884, died November 20, 1886. The eighth in the family was Carl Otto Lincoln. Luther L., born March 3, 1889, was educated at Bethany, and is now a merchant at Jamestown, New York. He married Judith Anderson.

Carl Otto Lincoln was graduated from Bethany College of Lindsborg with the class of 1909. He subsequently took a special two years course in the George Washington University at Washington, District of Columbia, and for three years was a member of the Bethany College faculty. He finally turned from teaching as a profession and in 1915 bought an interest in the Bethany Printing Company of Lindsborg and had been active in the business management and the editorial control of the newspapers issued by this company. The Posten, one of the publications, is the only weekly Swedish paper published in Kansas.

On June 7, 1916, at Cleburne, Kansas, Mr. Lincoln married Miss Alice C. Johnson, daughter of John W. Johnson. Her father was the first child of Swedish parentage born in Kansas. Mrs. Lincoln was born on a farm near Cleburne, Kansas, November 1, 1886, and finished the normal course in Bethany College in 1906.